Conventionally, remote control devices (remocon) are used to operate instruments, such as televisions, video players, and set-top boxes, for reserving recording of or viewing a television program. However, as the remote controller's menu has a hierarchical structure, there is a problem in which the operation is complicated and requires time for one to get used to. For example, ten times or mote button operations are required to watch a television program, forcing users to bear a tremendous burden.
To solve such a problem, there has been proposed a television program recording system using a digital pen equipped with a pen device as writing material and an infrared reading mechanism and a paper printed with a dot pattern (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-203381).
In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-203381, a paper is printed with a dot pattern together with a television program listing. The dot pattern is made by printing unevenly spread small dots and indicates absolute position information in a wide plane area. If a user encircles the television program listing or ticks a check box beside the television program listing using a digital pen, the digital pen recognizes the position information of that position. As the position information on the paper is associated with the program information in advance, the encircled or ticked program is reserved for recording. In this way, as operations, such as reserving of recording a television program, can be performed on a paper medium, even a user who is not familiar to machine operations can perform operations easily, intuitively, and flexibly. In addition, a paper medium has an advantage as being superior in displaying a comprehensive view and portability.